House of Infamy

For "those inquiring minds" who want to keep track of the ongoing saga that began with the Raid on the B.C. Legislature on December 28, 2003.

Friday, July 18, 2008

What's That Stench in B.C.?

Thanks to the Canned Waste virtual monopoly on Tee Vee and print news in British Columbia and their apparent policy of "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil" regarding the Campbell Cabal that passes for "government" in our fair province, I've long been immune to being surprised by better coverage of Corruption in Victoria appearing from time to time in media from Central Canada. I must admit though that today I was surprised to find "What's that smell in BC?" in that flagship national paper, started by the convicted felon now doing time in the US Federal Prison System, the National Poop Post.

In the pages of the Post, Bruce(thanks anon - kc) BrianHutchinson demonstrates how the stench from Victoria is so strong it apparently can drift across the Rockies, the Prairies and Northern Ontario and still irritate the nostrils of those located in the Center of the Universe. The bolding in the following excerpts from the Post is mine!

Something smells in British Columbia and for once, local pulp, paper, and lumber producers are not to blame. Most of their malodourous mills have been mothballed, putting thousands on the dole and forcing industry executives to find new sources of revenue.

The real source of stink is Gordon Campbell's B. C. government, now seven years old and showing serious signs of rot.

The latest evidence is in an eye-popping report delivered on Wednesday by the province's Auditor-General.

John Doyle criticizes a Cabinet Minister's decision to give lumber and wood chip player Western Forest Products Inc. the right to pull thousands of hectares of private land on Vancouver Island from the protection of a tree farm licence arrangement.

The decision, made last year by former minister of forests and range Rich Coleman, represented a $150-million windfall to WFP. Mr. Coleman's brother, Stan, is WFP's manager of strategic planning.

A similiar scam is happening locally here in the Kootenays as Pope and Talbot in the midst of going bankrupt, is trying to also sell waterfront property from their TFL. This scam might be more acceptable if the company wasn't also trying to get out of town (Nakusp) without paying over three million dollars owing to their logging contractors (now unemployed in many cases) FOR LOGS DELIVERED last year

Mr. Hutchinson tabulates a few of the other ongoing scandals, but not a complete listing by any stretch of the imagination.

British Columbians are still waiting for answers on a number of other suspect fronts. It's been more than four years, remember, since the RCMP raided government offices in the legislature buildings, looking for evidence of alleged misdeeds related to the government's sale of B. C. Rail......./snip

That's not all: British Columbians are waiting to learn what charges, if any, will result from a police probe into the business affairs of former solicitor-general John Les.

He resigned from Cabinet in March when news emerged of an investigation into decade-old municipal land dealings in Chilliwack, east of Vancouver. Mr. Les was mayor of Chilliwack from 1987 to 1999.

Mr. Hutchinson's accounting fails to even mention another Agricultural Land Reserve removal outside of Victoria involving Ministerial Aides and bribery charges. Then there is the ongoing ICBC corruption, the expansion of gambling and the resulting money laundering investigations. Then there is Premier Campbell's recently disclosed sympathy for the poor, poor RCMP, who actually kill more people in British Columbia than the rest of Canada, during in custody or tasering incidents, thanks to an FOI by the CBC. Of course every killing by the RCMP proves to be completely justified and we aren't supposed to suspect that this is because the RCMP itself investigates these incidents.

It isn't difficult for me to imagine why the Premier would be so sympathetic to the RCMP, they've certainly given the impression of being HIGHLY considerate of his interests. They've stonewalled as much as possible in disclosing evidence siezed during the Legislature Raids. They don't seem in any hurry to finish any of the myriad investigations currently underway (well, theoretically) such as ICBC, John Les' land dealings, or the ongoing money laundering at BC Casinos. They were especially considerate in NOT bothering to interview Mr. Campbell and Finance Minister "Ferret" Collins in the immediate aftermath of the Legislature Raids and issuing statements clearing ALL ELECTED officials of any possible crimes - this just days after having some of those same (now resigned) elected officials under surveillance.

If I was premier though, I guess it would comfort me to know that the brother-in-law of the chairman of my political party was in charge of investigating possible criminal activity by my government (and party). It's difficult to imagine anything cozier than that!

This week at the Law Courts

Robin Mathews has been attending this week's pre-trial hearings concerning just who will get to know what is in the infamous e-mails that may actually finally be produced to the defense after ONLY 4 1/2 years. It's not looking likely that the public, the people whose interests are at issue, will be allowed to know the contents of these e-mails. It is difficult to not wonder "What does Gordon Campbell and his cohorts want to keep hidden so desperately?" Robin's first two days this week are reported on over at BC Mary's Blog and tonight or tomorrow we should be able to learn what he observes there today.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Oh my, the carbon tax era starts July 1! It's a new kind of Canada Day.

......./snippety doo dah

How will all the good folks in the boonies be able to drive their pickups to those high-paying jobs in B.C.'s new natural-gas patch? Suberbanites are so angry, it seems, they're ready to abandon B.C.'s green premier and flock to New Democratic Party leader Carole James in the next election.(Being an amateur I won't deign to correct Milo's spelling-kc)

Don't worry though, Milo Cernetig rescues us from this fantasy with the following:

Now, if you really believe all of the nonsense above, I've got some shares in the Lion's Gate Bridge you might want to buy.

Of course Milo should perhaps be more careful in his choice of examples of the outrageous as any sane person should realize that Gordon Campbell would privatize and capitalize the Lion's Gate Bridge in ONE HOT SECOND, if he thought it would fly. Nothing would fit the BC liaR's Party ideology better than the Lion's Gate Bridge under private (preferably American or German) ownership.

Indeed in his own way Gordon Campbell has perhaps done more for the future sovereignty of BC (and maybe the rest of Canada) than most. The more of British Columbia's assets he can transfer to American corporate control, the less likely the American Corporate Elite (who after all call the shots) will be to have BC NOT BE a foreign country. If BC became a part of (shudder) Amerika, then their holdings in streams, mineral and gas deposits and railroads, to scratch the surface, would beome subject to that pesky and nosy Internal Revenue Service. After all the motto is keep as much of one's wealth offshore as possible, and if it originates elsewhere, so much the better.

The Amazing Part or When Campbell Didn't Lie!

Gordon Campbell gave a lengthy "interview" to the Vancouver Sun, last Thursday. I put the word interview in quotes to signify my curiosity how this "interview" differs from the more normal idea of the boss issuing direction to his flacks. But then I guess normally there are a couple of those infamous OIC appointees in "Public Relations" who can handle the day to day direction of the flacks media.

Anyway, the way I read the interview Campbell did everything but shout from the roof tops that the whole "carbon tax" thingie was just a ploy to justify his appropriation of Kermits green costume a year and a half ago, or so. In the intervening 18 months it has become apparent that a couple of adjective laced speeches just didn't constitute an environmental policy and something a little more........well, actual would be required. So voila! Welcome to Canada Day and my new tax to discourage the masses from using gasoline. If the price doubling in four years or going up 50% in four months won't do it, 2.3+ cents per liter surely will.

But wait Campbell told the Sun that:

"It's really about growing people's paycheques," he said, adding the tax will be met with a series of tax cuts that make it revenue neutral.

"So ask people if they think we should tax pollution, reduce their income tax, and help grow their paycheques? I think they'd generally say yes," he added.

So really it is just another "tax cut" courtesy of the liberals and extremely compatible with their basic ideology that "taxes are bad," disguised as environmental policy and oh yeah, it isn't really really a tax. Well it certainly doesn't address pollution, I'll give him that one. Somehow the right wing wankers have convinced most or enough of the voting public that ALL TAXES ARE BAD. Never mind the fact that taxes pay Mr. Campbell's inflated salary, and oh yeah, build schools, pay teachers, build highways, hire police, provide health care and so forth.

How the CBC Helped Change Canada Day to Campbell Day!

Gordon Campbell himself laid the groundwork to turn Canada Day into Campbell Day by scheduling his gas tax fo kick in today. Maybe he thought everyone would either be too buried in their unexpected riches from their Climate Change Dividend or too covered in Bar-B-Que sauce to notice. But the whole smozzle is a perfect example of the old idea that its the thought that counts. Considering what has been happening to gas prices at the pump, Gordon's little grab is little more than an insult, especially to those in the province who don't have the option of transit or hibernating for the winter on Maui to avoid heating bills.

CBC BC, as usual for a holiday, let one of the regional morning shows cover the whole province so the others (I presume) could enjoy the holiday with their families. Today we were all blessed with the Early Edition, thankfully without its regular host Eric Clough. The Early Edition decided to make the whole morning a call in about Kermit's Campbell's gas tax that kicked in overnight. There were enough callers who praised the gas tax to wonder if all of those OIC PR types got a holiday today or not. But more to the point was the caller from MacKenzie who said that like ninety percent of his town, he was out of work and could hardly afford to drive anywhere, already. That was especially distressing for him, as his mother was in hospital in Prince George (thanks to the BC Liberals, I presume, who don't think anyone should be hospitalized anywhere near home if that can be avoided) and he couldn't really afford to drive there to visit her. If they are as well served as we are here, then I don't imagine he has lots of (environmentally friendly or otherwise) options. I think I can get to Kelowna in TWO DAYS by bus, but haven't checked it out - I can drive there in a few hours.

The absolute JaccardAss winner of the morning though was Marc Jaccard, who is apparently considered some kind of expert, who responded to a caller from the hinterlands who felt that we country mice were being treated unfairly. Mr. Jaccard who seems to be the President of the Society to Annoint Gordon Campbell Savior of the Planet, even more than The Governator, pointed to the real losers in all of this. I can hardly type this, but they who suffer the most from Mr. Campbell's environmental policy are, are you ready for this? THE RICH. Those poor, poor rich folks and their fleets of luxury cars and SUVs and boats and the need to feed them not only gas, but often high quality EXPENSIVE gas. Mr. Jaccard put the whole issue into a new perspective for me and I guess I will go pray now for those hard done by rich folk and their Jet-Skis that I certainly hope don't have to do without any fuel, due to hardship.